Submitted by the F/A-18 Public Affairs Office

Automobiles, toasters and even commercial jetliners are produced on moving assembly lines. As part of The Boeing Company's emphasis on implementing lean production principles, a moving-line is being used to perform assembly and installation operations on the Super Hornet's outer wing.

Use of the moving line, which began Sept. 29, is expected to reduce cycle time, work in progress, part travel distance and floor space. Members of the production team say the moving line will boost the quality of the outer wing, provide a safer work environment and eliminate the need for an overhead crane. There are already plans to make the wing lay-down line a moving line during the first quarter of 2000. The lay-down line is where the aircraft's inner and outer wing is joined together and control surfaces are mounted.

"To achieve our very aggressive program goals for improved quality and lower cost, we have applied the latest lean design and manufacturing techniques, including the use of self-directed work teams," explains Chuck Allen, Boeing's vice president of the F/A-18E/F program ... "We are seeing an immediate impact on productivity through the elimination of waste thanks to ideas being generated by teams on the factory floor."

Under the moving line concept, outer wing assemblies are mounted on a rollover tool designed by the Boeing tooling department in St. Louis. A chain and sprocket mechanism, powered by a 1/2-horesepower motor, pulls the rollover tool along a straight track about 60 feet long. Previously, the outer wings were placed in tooling dollies.

Now, as an outer wing moves along the line from one station to the next, assembly team members use the rollover tool to turn over the wing. That's much faster and less hazardous than using an overhead crane, which lifted a wing above the assembly area and turned it over before setting it down again.

Bob McDaniel, Boeing general foreman for the E/F outer wing team, sees the moving line as a way of "helping us pace our work and better focus on correcting problems in a timely manner. As the line moves, we'll be able to see right away where we should be just by the position of the assembly on the line."

The speed of the E/F outer wing moving line can be adjusted to suit the required cycle. The pull mechanism has an on/off switch, and any operator or foreman can start the line or stop it. The outer-wing team estimates that at full production the moving line will reduce cycle time from 17 days to eight.

"There was a great deal of skepticism in the beginning," explained Kent Beran, Boeing's director of F/A-18E/F assembly. "But after the team saw how the moving lines worked in Seattle, they decided the concept could actually improve the way we build the Super Hornet."

The Super Hornet's moving line is the result of suggestions from consultants and an accelerated improvement workshop held in the fall of 1998. Team members traveled to Seattle to see how the moving lines blended with the airplane production cycle.